This stuff needs some publicity (originally from
http://www.hyperorg.com/...
From the above link:
"The US delegation to WIPO is pushing for a "webcasting" extension that would require you to get permission before you could reproduce content that has been "webcast," even if that content is in the public domain. "Webcast" means that some combination of "images or sounds" have been made "accessible to the public...at substantially the same time." If you find that disturbingly vague, join the club. Then pick up the club and let's see if we can beat this thing into the ground."
Given the Republicans' penchant for forcing world trade treaties through Congress on upper-down votes...
The proposal appears to create a parallel system of "online copyrights" in which the copyright runs from date of downloading...and conveniently ties into the upcoming release of Microsoft's Vista...
The blogger referenced above, who actually attended a US WIPO meeting, also has more of an action-oriented blog entry here:
http://www.hyperorg.com/...
An interesting place to start at WIPO itself is: http://www.wipo.int/...
(where the author notes that the granularity of copyright is much finer in the online world)